India’s latest move against the decentralised messaging application Bitchat is about more than one piece of software. It reflects a challenge that governments around the world face: how should emerging technologies be regulated when they offer legitimate benefits to consumers but can also be exploited by bad actors? The answer is not straightforward. But restricting innovation in emerging technologies solely because of what they might enable, rather than what they have demonstrably achieved, risks setting a precedent that does little to improve securit y while discouraging innovation.

The government’s direction to GitHub reflects concerns that decentralised messaging platforms can complicate criminal investigations by making communications harder to attribute. Those concerns deserve serious consideration. Governments have a legitimate responsibility to combat organised crime, terrorism and other threats to public safety. The challenge is that virtually every communication technology, particularly one that is encrypted and decentralised, can also be misused. The real question is how to ensure regulations tackle unlawful conduct without treating technology itself as a problem.

This distinction is not unique to India. For years across Europe, messaging services such as Signal and WhatsApp have faced repeated calls to provide law enforcement with access to private communications in the name of public safety. While criminals can exploit encryption, policymakers have acknowledged that weakening encryption would........

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